Vincent-Hill Cornbread Dressing

A family recipe for Southern-style cornbread dressing with sage sausage, made from scratch cornbread, and plenty of butter.

Preparation	Cooking	Ready in	Yield
2+ days*	1 hour	2 days + 1.5 hours	One 9x13 cake pan

*Cornbread must be made and dried 2+ days in advance.

Ingredients

Name	Quantity
Cornmeal	4 cups
White flour	1 cup
Salt	2 tsp
Baking powder	2 tsp
Cooking oil	1/4 cup
Milk	As needed
White bread cubes	~1/3 volume cornbread
Jimmy Dean sausage (sage)	1 lb
Celery	1.5 cups
Yellow onion	1.5 cups
Dry rubbed sage	At least 1/4 cup
Dry thyme	1 tbsp
Butter	1/2 lb (2 sticks)
Eggs	2
Chicken broth	Up to 2 quarts

Directions

1. Make the cornbread 2+ days in advance. Mix cornmeal, flour, salt, and baking powder. Add oil and enough milk to make a thick batter. Pour into a greased oven-safe pan and bake at 375°F until well-browned and a probe comes out clean.
2. Let cornbread cool, then dice and spread on a cookie sheet to dry. Can be dried in a very low oven — don’t over-toast.
3. For white bread cubes, toast bread slices, dice, and dry — or use a bag of unseasoned stuffing cubes (about 1/3 the volume of the cornbread).
4. Preheat oven to 325°F.
5. Fry sausage until browned and crumbled. Remove to a large mixing bowl, leaving the fat in the pan.
6. Chop celery and onion. Melt 1 stick of butter in the sausage pan and sauté until just translucent.
7. Add vegetables and all pan drippings to the mixing bowl with the sausage.
8. Stir in sage and thyme, then mix in cornbread and white bread cubes.
9. Whisk eggs and mix into the bowl.
10. Add chicken broth one cup at a time, mixing thoroughly as you go, until the mixture can form a snowball that holds together but is not too wet.
11. Taste and adjust — add more sage if needed. If broth is not low-sodium, salt should be fine.
12. Mix well.
13. Butter the cake pan and press the mixture firmly into a uniform layer.
14. Dot the surface with the remaining stick of butter and bake until golden brown, about 1 hour. Check every 10 minutes after the first 30.
15. Let cool, then cover with plastic wrap. Enjoy!